How NOT to Treat Your Grant Project Partners

I don’t know about you, but I can learn just as much – sometimes more – from a bad example as I can from a good example.  I was in a grant partnership meeting this week and I witnessed a whole bunch of examples of how not to treat your grant project partners, so I thought I’d share some of those with you.

1. Don’t throw one of your partners under the bus for your own political agenda. I’m speaking figuratively, of course.  I assume none of you would actually throw anyone under a bus. In a partnership setting, you need to remember that the value of your relationships with your community partners will extend far beyond the issue at hand.  It might seem expedient to make one of your partners look bad now so you can gain something, but in the long run, it’s never a good idea and it almost always comes back to haunt you.  Besides, it’s just not very nice.

2. Don’t reprimand your staff in front of your partners. Any good manager knows that reprimanding staff in public is a lousy idea, but it can be particularly harmful in a partnership meeting.  If you don’t have confidence in your staff, why should your partners? Maybe your grant partners are much more comfortable working with your staff than with you. In that case, reprimanding your staff in front of them will make them defensive. Again, it’s just not very nice.

3. Don’t spring big decisions on your partners at the last minute. Just like you need time to carefully consider important decisions before you make them, so do your grant partners. Don’t show up at the meeting with a bunch of new and important information and expect a decision immediately.

4. Don’t jump to conclusions. In a complex collaborative project, there are many interests.  Some of those are complementary and some are competing.  Unless you have been part of every conversation about a particular topic, don’t assume you know everything that’s going on.  You probably don’t.  It’s especially important not to jump to conclusions if you haven’t been present for all of the regular partnership meetings.

5. Don’t insist that the group re-discuss issues from last meeting because you didn’t show up to the last meeting. If you are unable to make it to a meeting, you are responsible for getting the information and bringing yourself up to speed on things.  That may mean contacting your partners in-between meetings.  If you know that is an item on the agenda that is important to you, you should have a representative present who can speak to it on your behalf.

Building and nuturing partnerships is a complex task.  Months, even years, worth of work and trust can be shattered in an afternoon if you are careless about how you treat people.  Think of the Golden Rule. Treat others as you would like to be rteated and you will rarely go wrong.

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3 Ways Non-Profits Build Trust with Grant Makers

There are literally tens of thousands of prospective foundations to sift through as you seek non-profit grant funding. Each foundation has its own timeline, guidelines, and fields of interest. All foundations have one thing in common, they look for evidence that your organization is trustworthy before giving you a grant.

New non-profits may find it hard to get their foot in the door with a foundation. Here are three key things to pay attention to that will increase your chance of building trust with foundations so you can secure grant funding:

1) Build it – Build a solid base of local support before seeking grants. I define support as donors, volunteers, and partner organizations.
2) Account for it – Establish an accounting system that would make a CPA proud and then conduct an annual audit to prove it’s as good as you think it is. If you can prove you are trustworthy with small amounts of money, someone might trust you with larger sums.
3) Prove it – By this I mean collect evidence – hard data and anecdotal – to show your programs are working and are appreciated.

If you serve undernourished sea turtles then keep records on how many turtles you take care of this year. A variety of data may be collected such as how many you turned away (if any) for lack of support or how many survive and return to the sea. Ask for written statements from volunteers, take a survey of the community, work with local marine organizations, talk to the media about what you do, join the local Chamber of Commerce, take pictures, and post videos online. Find a volunteer who is a scrap booking enthusiast and let them run wild. You goal is to build a portfolio of evidence that you’re active and effective. Don’t forget to put all this evidence online!

Finding grants for a non-profit organization is a lot easier when you can validate the impact of your programs and prove you are skillful in managing them.

Related Posts:

How is Your Organization’s Governance Equilibrium?
Assessing Results: Are You a Quant or a Qualit?

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Abstract Writing

An abstract is an arcane term synonymous with summary/executive summary. It is a summary of a grant proposal and it is generally written last. The abstract is important if it’s scored or not because it may be the first thing that the person scoring your proposal will begin reading. The abstract is rarely included in the scoring used to rank proposals.

Most abstracts follow a typical format –

1. Introduction – Intro sentence or two – Name the project, who is applying, where it is going to happen, what it will do, and for whom.

2. Goal(s) and Objectives – This may be an outright listing of these components or it may be a summary of the key points of them. It will depend on how much space you have to work with and the Request For Proposals (RFP) directions.

3. A summary of how effective management of the project is ensured.

4. A summary of the evaluation measures that will ensure achievement of the objectives.

It’s a good thing that this is all that’s required because generally those items are going to take the full page usually allocated for an abstract. Sometimes the abstract is even limited to 300 words. This is the case when the agency intends to use them as PR copy to describe the successful applications on a web site or in a brochure.

Related Posts:
 
Five Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Grant Objectives
Preparing for the Grant Writing Process
 
Helpful Grant Writing Resources:
 
Federal Grant Resources eBook – Helpful in finding those government grants.
101 Tips for Aspiring Grant Writers  – A book to help you with all the various sections of the grant.  This is written by Veronica Robbins, a highly successful grant writer.

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Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Abstract Writing

An abstract is an arcane term synonymous with summary/executive summary. It is a summary of a grant proposal and it is generally written last. The abstract is important if it’s scored or not because it may be the first thing that the person scoring your proposal will begin reading. The abstract is rarely included in the scoring used to rank proposals.

Most abstracts follow a typical format –

1. Introduction – Intro sentence or two – Name the project, who is applying, where it is going to happen, what it will do, and for whom.

2. Goal(s) and Objectives – This may be an outright listing of these components or it may be a summary of the key points of them. It will depend on how much space you have to work with and the Request For Proposals (RFP) directions.

3. A summary of how effective management of the project is ensured.

4. A summary of the evaluation measures that will ensure achievement of the objectives.

It’s a good thing that this is all that’s required because generally those items are going to take the full page usually allocated for an abstract. Sometimes the abstract is even limited to 300 words. This is the case when the agency intends to use them as PR copy to describe the successful applications on a web site or in a brochure.

Related Posts:
 
Five Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Grant Objectives
Preparing for the Grant Writing Process
 
Helpful Grant Writing Resources:
 
Federal Grant Resources eBook – Helpful in finding those government grants.
101 Tips for Aspiring Grant Writers  – A book to help you with all the various sections of the grant.  This is written by Veronica Robbins, a highly successful grant writer.

Grant Writers Must Know Their Limits

A freelance grant writer needs to develop a specialty area. It’s all well and good to say that you can write any kind of grant, but it’s not really true. I’ve taken on two grants over the past five years that were out of my area of expertise; these were medical grants. The Doctor who directs the clinic was pleased with my services and my writing. But I did not feel comfortable about the end products because the terminology, concepts, equipment, and processes of a clinic were so foreign to me that I struggled to put it together.

I learned that I just can’t write all grants for all people. Everyone has their field of knowledge and mine is definitely not the fine points of optical evaluation equipment. My Masters is in administration so I know management and change process well, but I am weak in designing programs for diabetic immigrant farm workers.

Freelance grant writers with the highest degree of success stay within their field of knowledge. The reason most organizations hire a writer isn’t because there’s no staff member with the ability to write a grant (most non-profit leaders have done plenty of grant writing). The reason organizations hire a grant writer is to give the job of writing to someone else. A shallow knowledge base in the area you are writing for will cause problems because the staff simply won’t have the time to bring you up-to-speed. Let’s face it, if they had the time to write it, they’d write it.

I suggest you find grants which your training and experience give you in-depth knowledge about and write those. If there are enough grants in that area to make a living, you’ll do fine. Don’t define yourself too narrowly and rely on one grant program either, or you may end up quite narrow (hungry) yourself!

Does anyone else have a comment about writing outside your area of expertise?

Related Posts:

Grant Writing – A Romantic Misconception
Lessons Learned from Failure

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Writers Must Know Their Limits

A freelance grant writer needs to develop a specialty area. It’s all well and good to say that you can write any kind of grant, but it’s not really true. I’ve taken on two grants over the past five years that were out of my area of expertise; these were medical grants. The Doctor who directs the clinic was pleased with my services and my writing. But I did not feel comfortable about the end products because the terminology, concepts, equipment, and processes of a clinic were so foreign to me that I struggled to put it together.

I learned that I just can’t write all grants for all people. Everyone has their field of knowledge and mine is definitely not the fine points of optical evaluation equipment. My Masters is in administration so I know management and change process well, but I am weak in designing programs for diabetic immigrant farm workers.

Freelance grant writers with the highest degree of success stay within their field of knowledge. The reason most organizations hire a writer isn’t because there’s no staff member with the ability to write a grant (most non-profit leaders have done plenty of grant writing). The reason organizations hire a grant writer is to give the job of writing to someone else. A shallow knowledge base in the area you are writing for will cause problems because the staff simply won’t have the time to bring you up-to-speed. Let’s face it, if they had the time to write it, they’d write it.

I suggest you find grants which your training and experience give you in-depth knowledge about and write those. If there are enough grants in that area to make a living, you’ll do fine. Don’t define yourself too narrowly and rely on one grant program either, or you may end up quite narrow (hungry) yourself!

Does anyone else have a comment about writing outside your area of expertise?

Related Posts:

Grant Writing – A Romantic Misconception
Lessons Learned from Failure

Grant Writer on a Pre-Spring Saturday

Grant writing can be an obsessive thing to do; especially since there are seasons for it. Government seems to release Requests for Proposals (RFP) in a flurry of activity that is not dissimilar to the sudden bloom of spring.

We are waiting for the grant bloom this year. It hasn’t started yet. Some of us may be wondering if there will be one or if in the midst of budget cuts grants will be a fatality.

My experience tells me that this isn’t so. My experience tells me that we will see the grants sprout up soon enough. The reason is simple, even when there isn’t enough money for an entitlement, there are still grants.  The government always has enough money to plant a few bulbs.

Government and politicians love to DO something, (even if it’s the wrong thing). Politicians hear from people about the problems of society every day. They are charged with doing something about the ills. Their answer is to spend money to change things. They are charged to make laws and to allocate money to change things.

But there’s never enough money to do it all is there? So grants are one way that some money can be used to produce change that gives hope and promise. Grants are limited in geographic impact, yet the impact of a grant can be huge. Grants can point the way.

Politicians like huge impact because it helps give direction to future expenditures while at the same time the stories of change and impact gives them something to point to they can be proud of. That’s why often with Federal grants the first person to call the grantees with the good news of successful funding is the local Congressman’s office.

Grants are a good way for the government to experiment. Grants give the opportunity for testing new ideas and grants don’t cost much when compared to national programs. Grants are good business for government.

So grants will continue. Grants will be funded this year. Grants will be announced soon even if other programs are cut. Oh sure, the number of grants funded may decline, so you better write better this year. But the best grant writers will still make a living.

Don’t worry all you grant writers. The RFP’s are coming soon, and soon enough we’ll all be spending Saturday behind a computer writing about objectives and qualifications of key personnel. Enjoy the lull, it won’t last. Write for your blogs while you have the luxury to do so.

Related Posts:

A Grant Writer’s Holiday
Grant Writing is No Mystery

Photo Credit-Makio Kusahara

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Writer on a Pre-Spring Saturday

Grant writing can be an obsessive thing to do; especially since there are seasons for it. Government seems to release Requests for Proposals (RFP) in a flurry of activity that is not dissimilar to the sudden bloom of spring.

We are waiting for the grant bloom this year. It hasn’t started yet. Some of us may be wondering if there will be one or if in the midst of budget cuts grants will be a fatality.

My experience tells me that this isn’t so. My experience tells me that we will see the grants sprout up soon enough. The reason is simple, even when there isn’t enough money for an entitlement, there are still grants.  The government always has enough money to plant a few bulbs.

Government and politicians love to DO something, (even if it’s the wrong thing). Politicians hear from people about the problems of society every day. They are charged with doing something about the ills. Their answer is to spend money to change things. They are charged to make laws and to allocate money to change things.

But there’s never enough money to do it all is there? So grants are one way that some money can be used to produce change that gives hope and promise. Grants are limited in geographic impact, yet the impact of a grant can be huge. Grants can point the way.

Politicians like huge impact because it helps give direction to future expenditures while at the same time the stories of change and impact gives them something to point to they can be proud of. That’s why often with Federal grants the first person to call the grantees with the good news of successful funding is the local Congressman’s office.

Grants are a good way for the government to experiment. Grants give the opportunity for testing new ideas and grants don’t cost much when compared to national programs. Grants are good business for government.

So grants will continue. Grants will be funded this year. Grants will be announced soon even if other programs are cut. Oh sure, the number of grants funded may decline, so you better write better this year. But the best grant writers will still make a living.

Don’t worry all you grant writers. The RFP’s are coming soon, and soon enough we’ll all be spending Saturday behind a computer writing about objectives and qualifications of key personnel. Enjoy the lull, it won’t last. Write for your blogs while you have the luxury to do so.

Related Posts:

A Grant Writer’s Holiday
Grant Writing is No Mystery

Photo Credit-Makio Kusahara

Avoid Grant Application Mistakes using Replacement Piles

Working alone on grants created anxiety that I would leave something out when assembling a complex grant application. Nobody was there to double check my work so I needed a way to minimize the possibility that I’d forget a required piece of a grant.  Relying on memory or luck to get everything put together was not an option, I needed a system.

Experienced grant writers know that deadline day can be a bit frenetic, especially if you’re writing multiple proposals. The blizzard of paper and the press of time can cause high anxiety and the possibility to overlook some crucial detail is always lurking in the back of your mind. Many things can go wrong that you can’t avoid but assembling a complete application does not have to be one of them.

To solve my problem and reduce last minute anxiety, I created s simple system I’ve called a replacement pile. The replacement pile is a just a stack of scratch paper on which I’ve written in bold, colored marker – in capital letters spanning the blank side of each page – the titles of every piece of what will be a completed grant application. A separate page is used for each section, form, etc.; hence, there will be one for the abstract, one for the table of contents, one for the narrative, and so on.

After I’ve created the replacement pile I place a copy of the Request for Proposals (RFP) checklist on top of it which I will use as my fail-safe double-check-off process to ensure that the replacement pile, once fully replaced, contains everything that the grant maker is requiring in the application. I also put a copy of the transmittal instructions on top of the pile so on the last day I am not paging through the RFP to find them, as Forest Gump so famously said, “One less thang.”

The way I use the replacement pile is simple. As a piece of the grant is completed, or as forms signed by the client are received, I pull the paper with the title of that component out of the pile and insert the finished piece of the grant. When all the scrap papers are replaced the pile the grant is ready to duplicate. Before going to the copier, I page through this original grant application using the RFP check list as a final review to ensure it is complete.

After photocopying the grant, I look through each duplicate copy to make sure that the demon copy machine didn’t suck two pages through as one and secretly sabotage my duplicate copies (copy machines can be cold and stealthy saboteurs). Since I almost always add consecutive numbering to each page in my grants (unless forbidden in the RFP) I just have to page through the completed copies to ensure there are no numbers missing.

My deceptively simple replacement piles force me to follow a process that has helped me avoid ever having a grant rejected for lack of required components.  Maybe the system will work for you too!

Related Posts:
 
5 Mistakes that can Cost Lose Millions of Dollars in Grant Applications
 
Tips for Preparing Grants with Short Deadlines
 
Success is in the Details
 
 

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